Is there a certain signature dish you make that your well known for?

My potato salad is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, I'm only in the mood to make it once every year or two.

Chicken and spinach lasagna. Takes hours but it is heavenly. Haven't made that in probably 10 years.

Yes Mexican food burritos smothered in chili and cheese along with nachos chili and cheese

> My potato salad is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, I'm only in
> the mood to make it once every year or two.

Oh gee whiz i love potato salad please invite me over??

My mother made some lasagna recently & it inspired this survey

When I'm in the mood to make it, you'll be the first one I invite!

Rice with shrimp, pineapple, cashews, chipotle peppers, kumquat, and mint paste.

Interesting that no-one noticed the wrong homophone in qual.

Chicken Ceasar Salad

Beans and Greens. Poeple don't exactly beg me for it, but none the less are happy to see it.

Not any specific dish, no. I am recognized among family and friends for my baking, but they like anything I bake. (I cannot cook, however. People know better than to ask).

My family has many favorites, my broccoli salad, "white stuff" Snowflake pudding with raspberry topping, beef stroganoff, hamburger stew, to name a few.

I make good kidney bean salad and a pretty good cheeseball.

My next conquest is Asiago Salami Spread. I remember it from a deli of a store that is no longer in my town. I found the recipe online.

Banana bread, brownies, twinkies, peanut stew (although I haven't made that in a long time).

Cake, of late. I have a friend whose little girl thinks my house is "the chocolate cake house".

Umm, I'd try visting if you weren't across the ocean.

What's peanut stew?

It's a sweet potato, kale, and chickpea stew with peanut butter in it. It's very tasty and I used to make it a lot, so many of my friends have had (and liked) it.

Interesting.

Wow, that sounds really nice! Peanuts are great for cooking with. I often use them in sweet things (I just made a load of chocolate and nut cookies this evening, with plenty of toasted peanuts in) but I also like home-made satay sauce (except for the time I pounded them in a plastic jug and managed to split it and get shards of plastic in my sauce...)

I love peanut dishes generally, too. Peanut butter is especially convenient, as there's no smashing involved! Here's the recipe:

african peanut stew

4 c. vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 c. peeled yams, sliced 3/4- to 1-inch thick, then quarter the slices
1 can (15 oz.) chick peas (or less if you like)
1/2 cup brown rice (uncooked)
1/4 c. creamy unsalted peanut butter
2 c. chopped kale
2 Tbsp lemon juice
soy sauce
chili powder

sauté onions and garlic in 2 Tbsp of the broth; add remaining stock, yams, chick peas, and rice
bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 35-45 min, until potatoes are tender and rice is done (sometimes i let the rice get a head start before i add the potatoes, say 10 minutes or so)
in a small bowl, blend peanut butter with 1/2 c. liquid from stew; add back in to stew, along with lemon juice, soy sauce, and chili powder (you can add more peanut butter or lemon juice to taste)
add kale and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes

It's yummy! I posted the recipe, if you're interested.

Thanks. I might try it out. I'm not into yams, though. Does it have that taste?

The yams are a pretty big component, although if you're not eating a bite of yam, peanut butter and lemon are the main flavors. You could pick around the yams, I guess.

I think I'm going to give it a try just so I can say I did.

Well, let me know what you think!

I definitely have to try that! Quick question though - you didn't list any potatoes in the ingredients, but then you mention them in the instructions. Or do you use sweet potatoes in the place of the yams?

I didn't even notice I'd done that! I use the terms "sweet potato" and "yam" interchangeably, which is common in the US. (Some of us are ignorant and can't tell the difference! Although to be fair, it's very confusing when some sweet potatoes have white flesh and others have orange or yellow flesh.) So when I mentioned potato, I meant sweet potato, or perhaps more accurately, yam. Whatever the proper name for what I use, they have orange flesh.

Oh good - because I would have to substitute sweet potato anyway

No. I'm not into cooking enough for there to be any special thing I make my own way.

Why's that?

I don't think I've ever seen a "true" yam - just pictures. It would be great to have access to the kinds of huge food markets that I've seen in London, but alas My local greengrocer does have more unusual fruit and veg from time to time, but not much from outside Europe (and a lot of it is grown within a few miles of here). Better for the air miles though!

Much better to have food with a smaller carbon footprint!

But not always as tasty!

True. (Although in California, it usually means it's more tasty.)

You say that like there might be something wrong with us here.

I had a neighbor though who barbequed sausages till they were half charcoal. If he roasted small critters, they would have small carbon footprints.

> You say that like there might be something wrong with us here.

If anything, I think I was saying it with a sense of smug superiority.

Oh right, you live in California now.

> It's a sweet potato, kale, and chickpea stew with peanut butter in
> it. It's very tasty and I used to make it a lot, so many of my friends
> have had (and liked) it.

Could you substitute Swiss chard for the kale? I really, really do not like kale.

Probably. I've never tried it, but it seems like it would probably work. Collards would probably be good, too.

> If anything, I think I was saying it with a sense of smug superiority.

As if I didn't get enough of that from my Californian housemate!!!

Is your housemate from San Francisco? San Franciscans are the best at it.

San Jose. Probably a good thing - I think she's smug enough as it is! Too much sunshine - not enough drizzle. Though she's getting her fair share of English weather now.

> Probably. I've never tried it, but it seems like it would probably
> work. Collards would probably be good, too.

Heh! Collards are almost as good as kale!

> San Jose. Probably a good thing - I think she's smug enough as it
> is! Too much sunshine - not enough drizzle. Though she's getting
> her fair share of English weather now.

Well, San Jose is right around the corner from San Francisco. I once had a crush on a San Jose lady. Unrequited, I'm afraid. She was riding with a bike club there called Dikes on Bikes. Ah well. She looked almost exactly like that photo of Janis Joplin on her bike. Can't remember which album cover that was...

Well, San Jose is pretty close to San Francisco!

I'm not a huge fan of collards, either. But for people who like them, I bet they would be good in this recipe.

Yes there is. And it is awesome. Truly a taste sensation. Man, I'm drooling just thinking about it.